AgrotechThe Center of Excellence for Orchard Robotics brings seven universities, Fresh Fruit Robotics and Washington Fruit and Produce Co together on machines for apple and cherry orchards, where labour has climbed from 45 to over 60 percent of costs.
Government data show the average retail price rising from Rs 29.50 a kg on 1 June to Rs 53.78 on 17 September and wholesale from Rs 22.60 to Rs 45.68; a shortfall in Maharashtra's summer crop and a late kharif harvest are blamed, and buffer-stock sales at about Rs 35 a kg and export curbs are among
LivestockA June European Commission audit found Thailand's export guarantees undermined by weaknesses in traceability, veterinary controls and HACCP verification; the UFU's Clement Lynch says food security is national security.
CropsECIU analysis puts British yields about 11 percent below the five-year average and Belgium's down 21 percent; processors in Britain are paying more than £300 a tonne against £180 at the start of the year.
Turpin Farms near Cincinnati, in the same family since 1785 and an Ohio Conservation Farm Family Award winner, uses endophyte grasses, mycorrhizae and growth regulators to turn out turf in four to five months instead of a year or two.
The 2026 Crop Robotics Landscape counts over 400 companies, a fifth more than in 2024, while growers' advisers say proven weeding, thinning and irrigation systems are gaining ground and harvest robots still lag.
LivestockMore than 40 hill farmers say in evidence to the Efra committee that a rewilding narrative has captured parts of Natural England, while the agency holds that many protected sites remain in unfavourable condition.
CropsIn Whole Earth Farming, Smallholder Farmers Alliance co-founder Hugh Locke argues that moving about 240 million of the Global South's 475 million small farms to regenerative agriculture and agroforestry could supply all the extra food needed by 2050 while restoring soils and drawing down up to 0.72
EnvironmentModels point to the current El Niño exceeding the 1982–83 event, with central Pacific sea-surface anomalies possibly above 3.0 °C, yet the Bureau of Meteorology says a neutral-for-now Indian Ocean Dipole, warm seas around Australia and long-term warming will shape spring and summer as much; water st
The National Farmers' Federation says it was not consulted on Working Holiday Maker visa changes that include a ballot and caps on second- and third-year visas, warning that backpackers make up to 80 per cent of horticulture's peak harvest workforce, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the AB
LivestockBeef Central's latest 100-day grainfed trading budget puts a typical 450 kg feeder steer entering a Darling Downs custom feedyard this week at a $170 loss: feeders at 520c/kg, rations near a 15-year high of $540/t and forward grainfed contracts at 875c/kg against a breakeven of 926c/kg.
CropsResearchers at The Sainsbury Laboratory and the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon have shown that the PIPL7 peptide made by the embryo is the long-sought ligand of the IKU2 seed-size receptor in the endosperm; raising PIPL7 expression produced larger seeds in a crop proof of concept, and a patent has
LivestockAbsa's AgriTrends Spring 2026 sees the maize market well supplied for the rest of the season; Epol's feed director says feed is about 70 percent of livestock input costs, while a poultry producer warns drought reserves and diesel could keep feed prices where they are.
